Dark
by NoobFish
Summary: Three years have passed since Ron's disappearance. Three years since she has searched for him. But three years changes a lot of things, and she didn't expect what she would find.
1. Chapter 1

The dirty once-blue van dropped her off amidst a row of sun-dried thatched roof shops nestled among the coconut trees that dotted the idyllic beachside village, before trundling away on its barely alive diesel engine. Leaving her behind in a cloud of red dust and black exhaust, it quickly disappeared around the corner and soon the only source of noise was merely an echo away.

She reached up and brushed away a few strands of red hair that had gotten in her dust-caked face, and glanced around her new surroundings. She patted her hands on her khakis twice to shake herself free of the billowy dust that could have only accumulated through weeks of unwashed care. Shrugging, she slung her ragged backpack over her shoulder, and walked in the direction of what looked like the only shop opened in this part of the world that seem to lazily come to a standstill.

From the road, she glanced into the dilapidated shack. For the lack of a better word, in her mind, it would be better described as something of a shed. But inside the dark, cool recesses of the shed, she could clearly make out a few personal belongings, a rolled-up mattress, a battered FM radio and a couple of empty boxes of cigarettes tossed haphazardly around. She glanced around for some sign of the occupant but to her chagrin, it looks like no one was home. While there were clearly neat rows of canned food and other random packets of snacks lined up in the storefront, she found it almost incredulous that anyone would leave their goods unattended.

Frustrated, she stepped under the eaves of the shack, out of the hot mid-afternoon sun and felt a cool sensation wash over her. The air itself smelt different under the shade, and she didn't feel as hot and bothered anymore. But she was here for answers, and this was no time to relax, after all she was so close.

"Hello?" She yelled out to anyone, hoping that some soul would come to her aid. "Anyone here?"

She peered around side of the shack, looking for someone, before she felt a presence behind her. Years of well-honed instincts made her jump back a couple of paces, before she came face to face with a wizened dark-skinned old man dressed in a loose flannel shirt and tattered Bermudas.

"Whatcha want, suga'?" He asked her, with a wry grin that revealed rows of blackened teeth. "Don't see many travelers in these parts. You lost or something?"

"No," she recovered quickly, as she relaxed her limbs. "I'm here looking for someone."

"Suga', everyone's always looking for someone," he grinned at her, as he walked next to his table of goods, and pulled out a chair from under the table. "Now, if you come this far looking for someone, he must be pretty special."

"Yes, he is," she nodded quickly. Her fingers quickly scrabbled at her hip pouch and drew back the zipper sharply and pulled out a photo. "Have you seen this man?"

"Lemme see here, suga'," the old man reached out a dirty paw and lifted the photo up. He squinted his eyes and stared down the bridge of his nose as he examined the two people in the photo. After a moment of studying the picture, he exclaimed, "Oh… This man… He's been around!"

"Really?" The woman's voice asked quickly in surprise. "Where is he?"

"Ah suga'…" the old man shook his head sadly. "You missed him… He's gone…"

"Where's he gone?" The woman asked quickly. "How long ago?"

"He's gone to see the old sea witch who takes care of these waters round here," the old man waved a hand towards row of coconut trees which marked the beach a little ways off from the shop. "Only about two weeks ago… Sad really… So sad…"

"What do you mean?" She asked in a panicked voice. "Sea witch?"

"Ah, you know, she who brings the waves? Calypso who bewitches men and drowns them in her embrace…" the old man went on wistfully. "Not a bad way to go, if I do say so myself… In her sweet bosom and embrace…"

"Wait, Ron's dead?" the woman suddenly felt a little light-headed.

"Dead… Dead… Gone with the waves," the old man waved his hand lazily. "Sad to hear it though… He was a nice man… Always with a charming smile… Hey, hey now… Don't go faint on me, hear suga'? Doctor's an hour away…" He quickly pulled out another stool from under the table and offered her a seat which she wordlessly accepted. As she sat down, he placed the photo on the table and slid it across next to her. "Yeah… Pity though… I liked that man."

The woman struggled to maintain her poise for a moment, quickly blinking away a little tear, and a sole word escaping from her lips. "Why?"

"Now why, I can't tell you," the old man swelled up a little with importance as he took in a deep breath. "But how and when, I can. I do think he must have been tired of that witch he's been living with, that he preferred Calypso to her…"

"Witch? Does she look like this?" The woman asked quickly, as she reached into her hip pouch again and drew out a crumpled piece of paper.

"Ah… I do reckon that's her…" the old man nodded. "Cept she didn't look nearly half this good. She's a mean one that witch, her green skin didn't help one bit at all… You know, Wizard of Oz and all that," he nodded slowly as he spoke.

"What happened?" She finally asked as she pondered for a moment on the information.

"I suppose I could start from the beginning," the old man began with a wry grin. "It's rare to have a listening ear round these here, so humor a man who has seen too many years, and no one to share them with."

"I would definitely like to know," the red-head nodded.

"Good," the old man clapped his hands together and rubbed them. He reached over to the table and pulled out two cans of soda. "Here suga', this one's on the house, but you're buying the next two rounds, kay?"

Without a word, she dug into her hip pouch again and pulled out a ten-dollar bill.

As quickly as she took it out, the money quickly disappeared into the folds of his clothes, never to see daylight again, as he smiled at the woman and began speaking, "You know, it was about three years ago when this young man showed up here in the middle of the night. Asked for food and drink from me… I remember exactly what he took, a packet of dried biscuits, some nuts and a can of fruit. That's all he could ask for… Poor guy, not a cent on him. I couldn't see a fine young man like him beg… And I gave it to him…"

"He didn't have any money on him?" The woman asked in surprise.

"Nope, none at all…" the old man shook his head. "But he was a good man, good man I tell ya, reminds me of my youth. Coz next day, I found twenty coconuts on my doorstep. Must have went out there in the dark and got 'em for me before the sun came up. Now, coconuts here are free, just walk by the beach and you can almost pick up the ones that drop. But these… That man knew how to get the best youngest coconuts with the sweetest milk."

"So he paid you with coconuts?" She asked him.

"Oh, that was at first…" the old man continued. "First it was coconuts, and then one day, I found three fish hanging outside my door… Freshly caught too… I was kinda feeling bad then, that young man had overpaid me, I sort of knew he had nothing to begin with, so that night, I left two cans of fruit out there for him."

"That sounds like Ron," the woman responded with a sad smile.

"Told you he was a fine young man," he said. "Now, some time later, he showed up, asking for corn seeds. Again, he had nothing for me… But I liked the man, so I gave it to him anyway. Ever since then, every two months, I see this basket of corn sitting for me right outside my front door. That man… He doesn't know he's paid me too much, and every time I do catch him outside my door, I make him take something, some flour, some bread. He'd always politely refuse, but I insist anyway."

The woman nodded, urging the man to continue his story.

"That's how it was at the start," the old man continued, after taking a sip of his soda. "One day, you should have seen the grin on his face… He brought me this net of fish! Eight or nine of them… In exchange for two small chickens I got at the back… You could have swore he just won the lottery with that look on his face… Instead there he was, proudly carrying these two chickens back to wherever he lives. And they were small too, the runts of the litter, one cock and one hen… But to him… They could have laid golden eggs…"

"So he was doing well here?" The woman asked.

"Uh huh, very well…" the old man said proudly. "Told you he was a fine man, you could see it too, when he first came, he was not much of a wee fellow, but now you could at least see the red in his cheeks. Ah he's quite a fine fellow. Much unlike that sour witch with him."

"What about that woman with him?" The woman's voice suddenly had an edge to it.

"Oh… She… She was a lot of trouble… Thank god I hardly ever saw her… The first time I ever laid my eyes on her…" The old man shook his head sadly. "Quite the beaut, but no thanks… Reminds me too much of my first wife, if you know what I mean."

"Was she in a wheelchair?" The woman asked.

"Uh huh…" The old man nodded as he thought back. "She sat sullenly there, glaring at him with her green eyes. He thought he'd bring her here for a walk… Guess she doesn't like walks much. Almost woke everyone here, all twelve of us, with her loud screams and she was a vicious one too."

"What do you mean vicious? What did Ron do?"

"He took it… He took whatever she threw at his face… Mean words, harsh curses… Much more than I could ever stand from my first wife," the old man nodded again as he took another long drink. "He took it all… Smiled through and through even though she spat right at his face, kept on smiling… Though he looked a little sad… That's when I first saw it… I meant, I thought it was from cuts from the jungle, but that day, I saw her reached out and scratched his arm as hard as she could… Drew blood too…"

"What?" the woman exclaimed in outrage. "Why that bitch!"

"My thoughts too… I would never hit a woman, but if she ever did that to me…" he shook his head and clicked his tongue. "But he just took it… The pain was clear in his eyes, but he just smiled sadly at her and took her home."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that," the old man repeated with a clear nod. "I started noticing other things too, scratches on his arms, his face, sometimes he would have this huge bruise right here," the old man pointed to the side of his face. "Said he fell down, but we all knew better."

"So it's been like that the whole time?"

"Uh huh… The whole time," the old man replied sadly. "Three years, he lived with her… That's why he probably went off and drowned himself in the end…"

"Not Ron," the woman voiced her thoughts vehemently.

"Ah suga', three years, people change… He must have been special stuff to live with that witch for so long," the old man said.

"So did you ever see that _witch_ again?" the aggressive inflection of her voice was not lost on the old man.

"Couple more times," the old man said slowly. "This young man, well… One night he was sick, and he sort of made it to my doorstep asking for food again. Night was raining and it was cold, found him hammering on my door asking for medicine. I took him in, wanted to make him stay the night, but he would have none of that. Said she needed him, and like it or not, I followed him home so that I don't have a dead man on my doorstep."

"What was she doing all this time?" The woman found herself growling softly at the back of her throat.

"She was there alright… When she saw him, only thing she said was she's hungry," the old man said sadly. "Sat right there, waited for him, and there he was cold and everything, and he went out again to get some dry firewood, to warm some food up for her. But that, that was the only time I didn't see her screaming or shouting or throwing something at him. Only time," he shook his head as he thought about it.

"Then how did he…" the woman gulped as she tried to bring herself to say the word. "Die?"

"The way I figured it, one night he had enough and walked out on her and found himself some pretty lass in the big city," the old man let out a little laugh as he spoke. "But he would usually leave something for me on the door every week, and when I didn't get anything last week, I thought to go pay him a visit, in case that witch finally killed my best customer or something."

"What happened next?" the woman asked, as she leaned forward.

"I found her, twice as scrawny, twice as dirty," the old man spoke. "Just a few days ago… I saw her yes… Maybe she was crying, maybe she wasn't… I wouldn't be surprised, that witch has no heart, I swear it… But she said he upped and left in the night. Went to check on the nets, she said, but never came back. I wouldn't blame him if he turned tail and ran like 'em bones were after him."

"Did he really die?" The woman asked again.

"Hey, don't take my word for it," the old man replied haughtily. "You can go ask that mean witch yourself. Hear she isn't talking to anyone, but I do go by every few days or so, to leave her a little food, for the sake of that young man. I do feel sad for her too… But the way she treated that nice man… It's hard to say, she's got no one with her left, and she probably won't make it past the month, the way she is…"

"Why?" The woman asked again.

"She's in a wheelchair!" The old man declared as though it was the most obvious thing. "She can't help herself… She needed that young man to cook and bathe her… I always asked myself, why would she ever do such a thing like that to someone else who had never treated her anything but nice? Seems like she's finally gotten what she deserves, but even that is sad…"

The woman closed her eyes for a moment, as she bit her lower lip. Finally she spoke up, "Could you tell me where she lives?"

"Eh, just that way…" He pointed behind the shop. "Fifteen minutes, you'll see this little patch of corn… Or used to be this patch of corn… Then you know you're near, and you can't miss it."

"Uh huh, thanks then," she got up to leave.

"Hey suga', mind if I ask? Who are you?" The old man questioned her.

With a polite smile, she replied, "A friend." With that she quickly walked off in the direction he pointed out to her.

"Uh huh… Well, if I had a friend like you, I wouldn't marry that witch," the old man muttered under his breath, as he took a final gulp of his soda. He closed his eyes as he enjoyed the cool afternoon breeze that wafted his way. "Young man, wherever you are, I hope you got it good…"

* * *

She walked briskly according to the directions the old man had given her. Around her, all signs of human habitation had disappeared, but she continued walking under the hot afternoon sun. She'd passed by the abandoned cornfield that the old man had mentioned, but found no sign of the house. She wandered on a little more before she caught sight of the dilapidated place.

It was barely anything; four walls, thatched roof, and a look like it couldn't withstand a heavy gust. With a heavy heart and a loud sigh, she walked closer, noticing that in the two weeks of his absence, things had fallen apart. The chicken coop next to the house had a yawning gap, and was sadly empty. New weeds had started to grow rampantly over the muddy front, and the stack of firewood by the door had already dwindled down to a few logs.

"Ron," she whispered with a sad voice. "How have you lived all these years?"

She walked up to the front door, ignoring the squishy sounds her sneakers made in the mud. Taking one last look around, she rapped her knuckles sharply on the makeshift door made out of hastily nailed together pieces of wood.

An all-too familiar voice rasped out in anger, "Get the hell out of here!"

She sucked her breath in at the sound, and took a moment to steel herself before pushing the door open. She found that it was unlatched and it swung open to a sight with she thought she'd never see.

Two pair of dull green eyes glared back at her own, a frail thin figure sitting in the chair, and a look that could easily burn right through her. The woman was sitting in a rusted wheelchair, caught in the act of leaning over, reaching out with one pasty pale arm that was barely anything more than a stick, trying to pick up a bowl of split slop that she'd dropped on the floor. Her long black hair had long lost its sheen and was matted and dirty. Wearing nothing but grimy rags around her body, she clutched desperately to the soiled shreds of cloth with her pale hand protectively. Through clenched teeth, she hissed one word sharply with a bitter taste in her mouth:

"Princess."

"Shego."

* * *

Kim had played through this scenario a million times in her head; she'd often wondered what she'd do to the woman who'd taken Ron away from her. Sometimes she would just swoop in, and give that damned bitch a slap and leave together with Ron and live happily ever after. Other times she became more graphic as she imagined squeezing those green orbs with her two fists, as she has the satisfaction of hearing that woman scream in anguish and pain. Then there were times she wished that woman would just burn, burn in hell, doused in the fuel of her own jealousy, and burn some more. It all never did seem enough to make up for the loss in her heart, that Ron had left one day without warning, and it all fell apart. She'd often imagined what she'd do when she finally met Shego.

None of those graphic scenarios came true. Beholding the withered human being in front of her, whom she had wanted to exact her vengeance on just a few moments ago, she quickly felt pangs of regret. Swallowing a huge lump in her throat, she stepped into the dilapidated shack, and under the withering baleful look of pure hatred from the occupant, she bent down and picked up the bowl and handed it to her.

The filthy woman watched her warily, stared at the outstretched hand holding the bowl out to her, before glaring back at those deep green orbs. Feeling lost and pitied, she snapped with a loud scream as she slapped away the proffered bowl with a vicious backhand, and shouted obscenities at Kim. "What the fucking hell are you doing here, Princess? Get the fuck out of here!"

Quickly snapping her hand back, Kim gazed down at the broken woman with a mix of sadness and disgust. She wanted to walk out of here, wanted to continue her search for Ron, wanted to leave the evil witch behind like how she'd always imagined in her dreams, yet something drew her to this wounded creature. With a soft voice she asked, "How are you, Shego?"

The older woman gave a snort and spat on the ground near Kim's feet, before cursing some more, "There! There's your answer! Now you must be happy, seeing me like this! Go! Get out of here and tell all your friends! Shego's a pathetic crazy old decrepit woman now! You won! Happy now?"

Kim closed her eyes and thought for a moment, while ignoring her tirade. After Shego had calmed down through her labored breathing, the red-head asked, "Where's Ron?"

"That no good buffoon of a loser finally ran away!" Shego spat out nastily. "Left me one night, bullshit checking on the nets my ass, should have been halfway back to you right now and fucking your brains out… That stupid asshole think he's so fuc-"

Her tirade was cut short suddenly by a hard stinging slap delivered across her face; Kim couldn't bear to hear the words coming out of her mouth. With her palm still throbbing from the pain, she looked at the stunned woman who glared at her with vile hatred.

Suddenly, summoning all the strength left in her, she pushed her hands against the wheelchair and clumsily lunged at Kim, with her hands outstretched trying to claw out the red-head's eyes. Her clumsy attack was easily sidestepped by Kim, and she fell to the ground with a cry of pain and fell silent.

Fearing some sort of trick, Kim watched the prone figure for a moment, before realizing that she was out cold. Quickly, crouching down on one knee, she brushed back the hair of the older woman, and gingerly felt her forehead. She hissed in surprise as she felt that the older woman was suffering from a really high fever. She reached under the woman's arms and scooped her up, and to her surprise, Kim found that she was very light. At her prime, Shego was easily six inches taller than her, and had the muscles of a well-toned body that were least much heavier than her own hundred and five pound frame. The body in her arms felt way less than that, as she gingerly placed the unconscious woman on the raised platform, which she suspected must have been their bed.

She turned on her Kimmunicator, and almost instantly, that familiar ring tone sounded. With a sigh, she pressed the big red button to receive the call. Instantly, Wade's face appeared on-screen looking crossed but worried.

"Where have you been, Kim?" Wade demanded immediately. "You suddenly went AWOL a week ago, and your parents, professors and Dr. Director have been banging down my door asking me of your whereabouts…"

"Listen, Wade, I'm sorry but I had to…"

Wade fell silent as he looked at her weary face. "At least, next time, keep me in the loop, okay?"

"Sure thing…"

"So…" Wade took a deep breath. "Did you find Ron?"

"No."

"I'm sorry, I guess that was a false lead."

"Not entirely…" Kim shook her head as she glanced over at the frail woman sleeping in the corner of the room. "I found _her._"

"Okay, let me inform GJ and send a team your way. I know you can handle her, but please wait for backup this time…"

"Cancel that call, Wade," Kim shook her head grimly. "She's no longer a threat…" Without another word, she swung her Kimmunicator towards the prone woman.

Wade's eyes squinted at the screen before he realized what he was looking at. "No way!" he exclaimed. "She looks like a refugee…"

"She is a refugee, Wade," Kim spoke softly. "She's been hiding out here with Ron for the past three years. From what I can tell, she's a paraplegic, and poses no immediate danger. Could you quickly do a health scan on her, and tell me whether she's healthy enough for me to hit her?"

"Heh…" Wade's smile faded as he could tell that Kim wasn't joking. "Right away, just direct the Kimminutator that way, and get me a blood sample."

Kim knelt down next to Shego as the Kimmunicator did a full-body scan. She gently lifted Shego's hand and took out a nasty-looking serrated life, and for a moment, considered just slitting the unconscious woman's throat. That way, Wade would have plenty of blood for his test… Shakng her head, she took a deep breath to steady her thoughts, before pricking the tip of Shego's forefinger. Dark red blood slowly oozed, and Kim gently dabbed the drop of blood on the specially designed tray that extended from her Kimmunicator. Sliding the tray back in, she sat back and took a second look at the woman before letting out a sigh.

Quickly glancing around the room, she found a few tools and utensils, scrounged up from god knows where, a couple of hollowed out coconut husks and a few rags. With a sigh, she glanced around to look for a tap or source of water, but found none. She picked up a makeshift bowl and went around outside the house, and to her disgust, found a barrel filled with collected rainwater. Wishing that she had something better, she filled the bowl and went back into the shack. Soaking a rag with the water, she slowly wiped the grim and sweat off the quivering sickly woman.

The features were clearly there, this was still Shego, but it had seemed that she had aged twenty years instead of only three. New fine wrinkles had formed around her eyes, and her skin was no longer firm. Glancing down at her fingers, Kim was shocked to see that her nails were broken to the point where she had bled. Grabbing her hand, and examining closely, she could see that they were in various stages of healing.

Shego had always been proud of her nails, with her endless filing and manicuring.

Using the damp rag, Kim tried to wipe away as much dirt as possible from both her hands. Satisfied that she had done the best she could for the woman, she emptied the bowl of filthy water outside the front door.

She grabbed one of the three remaining pieces of firewood and walked over to the stove which was smoldering in the corner of the shack. Using the firewood to gently poke the burning embers, she placed it over the ashes and hoped that it would be enough to get a fire going. Then she picked up a battered iron kettle and walked outside to the barrel of rainwater, and filled it up before returning to the house and placing the kettle on the burning embers.

Finally, she went to sit next to the sickly woman, and dipped into her hip pouch for a pair of aspirin tablets. Rummaging around her backpack for a bottle of water, she gingerly lifted the woman's head with one hand, prying her lips open to pop in the two pills and lifted the bottle of water to her lips. Somehow, Shego had managed to swallow the pills, and Kim quickly grabbed a rag to wipe away the trickle of water that had escaped the side of her lips.

As she laid the unconscious woman down on the platform again, she glanced around wonderingly, if this was the place her best friend had called home for the last three years. Feeling a rising tear to her eyes, she blinked hard, wishing that she had been here for him after all. Somehow. She closed her eyes and tried her best not to cry, when she heard a soft voice call out, "Ron!"

Startled, Kim sat up and glanced at the other occupant in the room. Somehow, even through her fever, the pale woman was calling out for him. Staring down with pity in her eyes, there were just too many questions swimming in her head. Somewhere down there, she wished that in the very least, the sick woman would get well enough to tell her what had happened to Ron. After all, he's the only one that matters.

The familiar tone of her Kimmunicator interrupted her thoughts. "Go Wade," she said tonelessly.

"Her immune system is compromised. She's got a tropical viral infection, which should be treatable at any hospital," Wade reported with a furrowed brow. "But I don't get it… Her comet powers are supposed to keep her in the perfect shape of health. It could be due to the malnourishment; that may explain her weakened state, but then again, according to our previous data, her regenerative ability should reattach her nervous system, and she should be walking… Kim… Maybe she really _did_ lose her comet powers… I mean, Ron could…"

"No…" Kim cut him off. "We don't know for sure whether she really did lost her comet powers. She could be faking…"

"We won't know until we do further tests on her."

"Whatever." Kim looked grim. "Call GJ in. But give me a thirty-minute headstart first."

"Ah… Kim… You might not want to hit her…" Wade piped up.

Kim's glare could curdle the blood of the staunchest marine. "Why not?"

"She's pregnant."

Kim drew a sharp breath. "What?"

"Her bloodwork, elevated progesterone levels," Wade glanced over his data again. "I'm certain she's pregnant."

"It's not Ron's, is it?"

"Can't tell, we'll need a placental blood sample to determine paternity," Wade replied.

Kim looked again at the unconscious woman. "Well, it could be anyone's…" Kim replied grimly. "She's nothing but a boyfriend-stealing whore." She reached into her pouch and drew out a small medkit. Unbundling the soft pouch, she reached for a preloaded syringe.

"Kim… No adrenaline…" Wade said warningly. "That could kill the fetus."

"Wade, shut up," Kim snapped back.

"Kim… What if it's Ron's baby?"

"It couldn't be."

"Listen to me, Kim," Wade's voice became stern. "You're being reckless… Stop it. You remember what happened the last time?"

With a growl in her throat, Kim threw down the needle in her hand and bundled up the medkit in a hurry. Ignoring Wade's voice of reason, she reached over and pulled Shego up by the collar into a sitting position. The older woman was still unconscious, her head lolling backwards. "Shego, wake up!" Kim shouted in her face.

"Kim…"

"Shut up, Wade!" Kim growled again. "Turn off your cameras."

"Kim…" Before he could say another word, he saw Kim deliver a bone-jarring slap with her left hand across Shego's face causing him to wince.

"Shego!" Kim yelled again, as a small moan escaped Shego's dark lips. Her eyelids fluttered, but before she could open them, Kim slapped her again.

Shego gave a strangled cry, as she raised her frail hands to helplessly bat off her assailant. "Stop!" she wheezed breathlessly, as she struggled and thrashed in Kim's grip. "Stop!"

"Shego… Listen to me!" Kim ordered her as she shook the woman.

"Who…" Shego's lips curled into a snarl as she recognized that head of red hair. Her words came out in a breathless wheezing. "Princess… And here I was thinking that it was all just a bad dream."

"Where's Ron?"

"So this is how you get your kicks, huh?" Shego summoned strength from her bitterness, and she reached up to wipe a bit of drool from her lips with the back of her left hand. "Beating up _cripples_? Oh, how the mighty have…"

"Shut up, Shego, and just answer my question or else…"

"Or else you'll what?" Shego sneered back at her defiantly. "Break my spine? Oh wait, you already did that. Now what else would you like to break? My face? No, you've done that too. Arms, legs… You've broken every part of me that there's nothing left to break…"

Kim glared at her with silent hatred. Ignoring her words, she repeated her question, "Where is Ron?"

"I don't know."

Kim raised her left hand and slammed her open palm across Shego's face. "Maybe you know now…" Kim growled. "Where is Ron?"

Glaring murderously at the redhead, Shego howled, "I don't know, okay! He left me! That stupid good for nothing buffoon of a sidekick left me!"

"The old man in the village nearby said that he drowned…"

"Bullshit," Shego shook her head and raised her hands to her eyes. "He left me… Must have run off with some village girl… Gone to the city, start up a new life…"

"Shego…"

"I thought he went back to you… Left me here to rot…" Shego gave a hollow laugh. "About time he did… Useless son-of-a-bitch…"

Kim cut her off with another hard slap to her cheek. Yet, to the redhead's surprise, the blow didn't seem to faze her at all, and Shego just stared off aimlessly into space.

"He's got to be…" Shego mumbled to herself. "He just has to be…"

"Shego, where is he?"

"I don't know…"

"When was the last time you saw him?"

"Seventeen days ago…" Shego mumbled. "He went to check his lines... That's when he must have run off… Good for nothing…"

"So, is he dead or not? The man at the village said you told him that he was dead. But now you're telling me a whole different story." Kim shouted at her in frustration. "Tell me the truth!"

"He ran away, okay?" Shego snapped at her. "He'd better have…"

"Why do you say that?"

"Because if he didn't run away, it means that I've killed him!" Shego raised her voice angrily. "Don't you get it? He went out to get food for me because I was hungry! I made him go out that night! Even though it was raining and I could hear the waves crashing from here! I wanted… I wanted…" She choked out a sob.

A swell of anger rose inside her, and she tethered on the brink of an outburst of irrational anger. "You killed Ron!" she screamed accusingly. "After everything he has done for you, after everything he has _given up_ for you! You are nothing short of a totally selfish and ungrateful bitch!" Kim raised her hand and dashed it across the woman's face again. She didn't let out as much as a whimper as her eyes held their dead stare. "How dare you do that to Ron?" Again she slapped him, trying to put the full brunt of the force in her arm. "And you took him away from everyone who cared, and you put him through hell, all because you are nothing but one sadistic beast!"

"Kim!" Wade's tinny voice pleaded over the speakers of her Kimmunicator. "Kim! Stop it, hitting her won't bring Ron back. She's too weak to defend herself! Stop it! It won't…"

Disgusted, Kim pulled away from the unresisting woman and stood up. _Maybe if she had a heart, or at least a sense of survival, she could at least understand what Ron meant to her. _With her back turned on to her, Kim asked bitterly, "Shego, I just got one last question for you. Whose is it?"

"What do you mean?" Shego replied sullenly, her cheeks burning red with the thrashing that Kim had laid out.

Kim let out a hollow laugh. "I guess you don't know who the father is after all," Kim sneered, as she wiped her red eyes. "You're such a slut…"

"Father?" Shego asked bewildered.

"You know what?" Kim threw up her hands. "I don't care. I just hope you and your new husband are happy, after what you did to Ron."

"It can't be…" Shego gasped as she realized Kim's words. With a trembling hand, she gently caressed her unswollen belly. "You mean…"

"You're pregnant," Wade's voice came over the Kimmunicator. "The blood work confirmed it."

"No…" Shego looked wide-eyed at her belly numbly. "I'm… Pregnant?" Her eyes seemed to have lost its glassy stare, as she gently ran her fingers over her stomach. "It can't be…"

"So who is the father?" Kim blurted out impatiently.

"It's Ron's…" Shego whispered with a shadow of a smile on her face. "Ron's baby… In me…"

Kim swore under her breath, as she regarded the woman balefully. She pursed her lips together as her mind was in a whirlwind. After all her best friend had been through, this would be the least that she could do for him. But only him. She raised her Kimmunicator and said, "Wade, get me a med evac jet out of here, ASAP. We're taking Shego with us." At her words, the older woman snapped her head up in attention and glared suspiciously at the redhead.

"Sure, should I also call the hospital ahead to let them know that…"

"Negative, Wade," Kim ordered. "No hospitals. No official records. Nothing. The flight records would just show me getting on the plane, and dropping me off at my apartment. No one else."

"What about Shego? You're not going to push her out of the plane, are you?"

"No, she's coming with me. Just off the books."

"No way!" Shego spat out. "What makes you think I'm going with you?"

"You don't have a choice," Kim replied coldly.

"Like hell."

"Listen to me, Shego," Kim hissed in anger, as she loomed dangerously over the crippled woman. The red-head reached into her waist-pouch and drew out a syringe. Uncapping it, she drew closer to Shego with an uncharacteristic sneer on her face. "You _don't_ have a choice!"

* * *

**Author's Notes**

OMG! OMG! A KiGo! Really? Meh, it's just Kim and Shego. Arguing like always. Aww... Dammit, NoobFish didn't fall to the KiGo side. Or did he?

So I've been busy. Yeah... All those episodes of Family Guy never helped either. Also with Futurama coming back with a new season. I know I haven't written anything in a while, and to be honest, I haven't. I dove into my folders, found this story, and intend to make it work. Kriegsherr_wys's been really busy too, so I decided to try my luck solo. So this ought to be a little crude and weird. Sort of a different sort of story. Straight to the grown-up part, Ron's death, Shego crippled, Kim crazy. Hey, that's like so many other fanfics out there. Wait a minute...

I intend this to be a brief 3-4 chapter story. So yeah, if I got time I'll post some of my other stuffs. But yay, it's the long weekend, and yes, it feels good to be back.


	2. Chapter 2

"Do you know how many international laws you are breaking? We're not just talking a small demeanour here, Kim! You could lose your job, your life, your achievements! They would take _everything_ from you, expunge every good deed you have ever done! Everything that you have built up to this point _thrown_ away just because..."

"Calm down, Wade," Kim replied tiredly as she sat in her study, with her clenched fist pressed against her forehead. She was dressed in her immaculately pressed blue Global Justice uniform, looking down at the paperwork on her desk, ignoring the livid African-American man on her computer terminal screen.

"Kim! You are not just harbouring a wanted felon, but this... There has got to be a kidnapping charge somewhere in here too!" Wade pleaded with reason. "You smuggled Shego back into the country, _after_ drugging her up, and _then_ kept her locked up in your apartment... Kim, have you gone insane?"

"First of all, Wade, she's not locked up in my apartment," Kim rebutted half-heartedly.

"Semantics, Kim!" Wade spluttered at her nonchalance. "She's effectively a prisoner in your apartment! How are you going to explain this to your boss?"

"Wade, I don't need to explain anything to Dr. Director if she doesn't find out about this, do I?" Kim's voice dropped a notch colder. "And secondly, Wade, do I need to remind you who was the one who helped me arrange transport back to Middleton? If I recall, that's aiding and abetting a felony."

Wade's face turned visibly pale. "Kim... You wouldn't..."

"Wade..." Kim looked up tiredly at the computer terminal, as she pressed her palms against her forehead. "You're my friend. I wouldn't rat you out. If anything happens, I'd just say I was acting alone. But I would expect a friend to do the same for me."

"Kim, I'm not thinking of myself here," Wade remarked, sounding slightly relieved. "It's just that... Why, Kim? Why?"

"Because..." Kim tried to find the words to explain. She finished half-heartedly, "It's what Ron would have wanted."

"C'mon, Kim, that's just bull," Wade called on her bluff. "If Ron was here, he would have said the exact same thing... He'd tell you that you're crazy and you have to keep your Kim-ness under wraps."

"But he's not here!" Kim snapped angrily at the mention of his name. "Ron's not here! He never will be! Instead, I have to put up with that beastly woman who is pregnant with his baby! What am I suppose to do, Wade? You want to say that it's not the right thing to do? _Fine_, it isn't! But then what about all the other 'right things' in my life? Like why isn't Ron here with me now? Why did Ron run away all those years back? Why did he have to die? You got the answers to that, Wade? Do you?"

Wade just looked at her silently. "I'm sorry, Kim," he finally spoke. "It's just that so many wrong choices were made, and I don't want to see you making another wrong choice..."

"Yeah, I know..." Kim muttered to herself. "I'm sorry too."

"Kim, I hate to see you like this," Wade sighed is dismay. "When you put your mind to something, you're so stubborn that you lose sight of your goals. I wish I could talk some sense into you, but I'm sorry I'm not Ron. I just hope you know what you're doing. See you later, Kim."

"Yeah. Later, Wade," Kim slumped back in her chair as she hit a button on the keyboard terminating the tele-conversation. She cast her eyes towards the corner of the screen which showed a grainy video feed from the bedroom next door.

Her green eyes focused on the sleeping woman, huddled under the sheets in a foetal position. Although she was sleeping, the woman struggled in her dreams, clutching her pillow tightly and occasionally thrashing in her sleep. Resolutely, Kim got to her feet and stepped out of her study. Without knocking on the door, she twisted the door handle to the guest bedroom and almost violently kicked against the door. She reached for the light switch and flicked it on.

Immediately, the sleeping figure groaned as the bright light strained her eyes. "Wake up, Shego," Kim growled at the woman. "We got to talk."

The raven-haired woman struggled to prop herself up on her elbows groggily, as she looked around her surroundings. She casted a quick glance around the room before rubbing her tired eyes again. "Where the fuck am I, Princess?" she asked grouchily.

"You're in my apartment," Kim replied bluntly. "Back in Middleton."

That seemed to have gotten the woman's attention as she pushed herself back with her arms and leaned against the headboard. "How the hell did I get here?" Shego asked in a wheezing voice, as she struggled to breathe. The muscle atrophy from her three-year lack of physical activity was taking a toll on her.

"I drugged you and brought you back into the country," Kim replied emotionlessly.

"Heh," Shego cracked a smile. "Now that sounds exactly like something I would do."

When Kim didn't reply, Shego's face turned serious and asked, "Why?"

"Because..." Kim crossed her arms as she glared at the woman. Without saying a word, she picked up a stack of papers lying on the dresser next to the door and flung it at the woman. The papers flew in a flutter before landing on the duvet covering Shego's legs.

"What the fuck is this?" Shego groaned as she blinked hard, reaching out to grab the papers. As her eyes focused on the words, she realised what it was. "What bullshit is this?" Shego yelled out, despite her weak lungs. "Adoption papers? What the fuck for?"

"For Ron's baby," Kim replied stoically as she walked over next to the bed. Reaching into her shirt pocket, she pulled out a pen and offered it to the woman. "You are going to stay under my care until the baby is due. And after that, I will be taking over full custody of Ron's baby. After that, I don't care what happens to you, you can crawl back to whatever hole you came from, but I will be that baby's mother, not you."

"No fucking way!" Shego snapped as she slapped the offending instrument out of the red-head's hand. The pen went flying, skittering into an unknown corner.

"Maybe you don't quite understand me," Kim explained herself coldly. "You are an internationally wanted criminal. All I have to do is make a call, and there will be no less than sixteen international enforcement agencies at my doorstep in fifteen minutes wanting a piece of you. You will be put in a hole so deep that you would never see the sun for the next forty-five years."

"Then why don't you just do it?" Shego snapped back.

"Because you're carrying Ron's baby," Kim replied calmly as she bent over to pick up the pen. "I won't allow his child to be born in the worst prisons on this planet, and the least you can do, if you have even one shred of humanity left if you, you would do what is best for his child."

Shego gave a cold laugh, as she placed one hand over her belly. "So this is what this is all about, isn't it? You want my baby? Why? Is it because it's Ron's and my baby? You're jealous, aren't you? You're jealous that I'm the one preg..."

Kim raised her hand and felt a rush of anger through her veins. She wanted to strike her across her sneering face and leave a red welt across her pale pasty skin. However, the blow never came. Shaking with anger, the red-head slowly lowered her hand before walking out the door without saying a word. As her fist gripped the door handle, she swung with all her might and slammed the door behind her.

Suddenly, her entire body felt weak, as Kim slumped against the wall. She clutched her face as the tears started streaming down her cheeks again. Slowly, she slid to the floor as she started sobbing in anguish as Shego's words echoed in her mind. It was like all those ghosts from all those lonely nights have come back, and Shego's voice haunting her, all too real this time, accusing her all over again and again...

* * *

Shego never saw much of her captor for the rest of the day after riling her up like that. Although she was grateful for the peace and quiet, she realised that other than a carafe of water and glass on the bedside table, she was feeling rather hungry. She'd thought about somehow crawling to the kitchen to find some food, but she had no assurance that the door was lock or not. Maybe Kim was trying to starve her until she caved and signed those papers. Or maybe she just wanted to see Shego crawl, dragging her useless legs behind her, while she stands victorious and triumphant over her.

Even after all these years, she still held on to her stubborn pride. She had long shredded the adoption papers with her thin bony fingers while waiting for time to pass. There was only so much time she could spend sleeping, and tearing up the papers gave her a strange sense of empowerment as she scored another victory over her long-ago arch-rival, no matter how hollow it was.

As she wondered what to do next, the door to her bedroom swung open, and her captor walked in bearing a tray of food. Shego had to give her credit; the woman seemed unfazzled by the shreds of paper lying on the bedroom floor. The red-head simply placed the tray on the bedside table and then, without a word, walked out of the room. For a moment, Shego glanced suspiciously at the food wondering if Kim would drug her again like a few days before and then transporting her to a maximum-security prison. Or maybe this time, she'd just drug her straight, put her in a pliable state of mind and make her sign over her baby. Or maybe, even worse, it was rat poison...

Shego shook her head at her paranoia. There's no way that woman would hurt Ron's baby. Her baby. If Kim wanted her dead, she'd have been reunited with Ron a long time ago in the afterlife. Even Kim wouldn't give her that satisfaction. Kim wanted her baby, there was no reason she'd even risk hurting it.

She picked up a bowl of steaming oatmeal from the tray and gently stirred it while blowing over the bowl. It had been the first decent meal she remembered for a while, and each mouthful of oatmeal was like a small morsel of warmth that emanated from insider her and warmed her trembling fingers. She finished the bowl quickly, before replacing it back on the tray and picking up the red apple next to the bowl. Taking a bite into the crunchy flesh of the apple, she sighed as she savoured the sweetness.

After she finished her apple, she found herself licking the core as she tried to savour every bit of sweetness in her mouth. Chucking the core aside, she licked her fingers, before settling back into bed with a contented look on her face. Somehow, the irony struck her, her arch-nemesis was actually serving her breakfast in bed. As she smiled stupidly at the thought, she was interrupted again by the opening of her bedroom door. Kim entered the room again, this time holding a small cup filled with brightly coloured pills. Again, silently, she handed the cup to Shego.

Unsure, Shego slowly raised her hand to take the cup from her and glance suspiciously at the pills. "What is it?"

"Vitamins," Kim replied curtly. "You are malnourished."

"Are you sure?" Shego studied Kim's face, looking for some kind of hint on her stone-cold face.

"Swallow it," Kim replied exasperatedly. "Don't make me bring in an IV bag."

Without a word, Shego popped the pills into her mouth and gulped it down with a mouthful of water. Feeling like a child, Shego opened her mouth and stuck out her tongue impudently. "There, I swallowed my pills," Shego remarked mockingly. "Want to give me my enema next?"

Without so much as a change in expression, Kim picked up the tray and walked out of the room.

"Wait..." Shego suddenly called out to her.

Stopping at the doorway, Kim turned and looked at her. "What do you want?"

"I..." Shego suddenly felt meek. "Look, I've been in bed for over 24 hours... I think... And unless you want to change my soiled sheets..."

Kim paused for a moment, before she set the tray down on the floor next to the door. She walked up next to the bed again, before pulling the sheets of Shego. Without so much as a word, she lifted the woman in her arms. Shego was caught by surprised as the red-head carried her towards the toilet. She knew that she'd lost some weight, but Kim's arms were quite strong. Embarrassed, she clutched her arms around Kim's neck, wondering why she felt nervous suddenly. Kim helped her into the guest bathroom, and gently left her on the toilet before walking out. Calling over her shoulder, the red-head said, "Holler when you're done."

"Okay..." Shego suddenly felt ashamed of herself and her useless legs. She realised how helpless she was without Kim, and the way she'd treated her earlier. All Kim wanted was her baby, and she somehow knew deep in her heart that her arch-rival would be a better mother than she would ever be.

* * *

"Why do you keep doing that?" Shego suddenly asked a few days later.

Silently, Kim knelt down and slowly picked up the shreds of the eighth set of adoption papers which Shego had torn up. Holding the torn pieces in her hand, she just gave Shego a blank look, before letting the pieces of paper fall into a wastepaper basket in the corner of the guess bedroom. "You know why," Kim replied, coldly and calculatingly.

"You won't believe me, but I loved him too, you know." Shego gazed down at her still flat belly and gently laid her hand on it.

Kim just rolled her eyes and walked towards the door.

"Is it that hard to believe that I can love someone like Ron?"

"For all the things I've seen you do," Kim found herself saying bitterly, as the mention of his name stirred something in her. "I don't believe someone as vile and repulsive as you is capable of any emotion like love. You never had any friends; everyone was just a tool to you, a means to get what you want. You are nothing more than a heartless thief, and everyone around you was just a means to your goal. You've lied, cheat and stole your way through life, and that's how you've always lived. So forgive me if I'm prejudiced, but you've had your fair share of chances for love already. You didn't need to take mine."

"Ron was my friend too," Shego mumbled softly.

"And look how you treated him?" Kim felt the anger rising in her voice. Struggling to contain her emotions, she clenched her fists and inhaled deeply. "You drove him to his death!"

"That's not fair..."

"Really, now?" Kim taunted her. "What about what's fair to Ron? Did he deserve to die?"

"I didn't mean to!" Shego choked out. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry that he died and I know it's my fault! And I'd do anything to have him back!"

"Guess what, bitch. Your actions speak louder than your words."

"You know what, Kim?" Shego retorted with indignation. "I don't care if you believe me or not. I loved Ron, and I won't give his baby up for adoption! So you can either call the authorities on me, declare me criminally insane or even put me in a chemically-induced coma, I don't care. But I am going to fight until my last dying breath to keep _our_ baby. Yes, Kim, _our_ baby. Ron's and mine."

"And if you have any love for that baby, you would give it up for adoption without hesitation," Kim struck finally. She'd worn her opponent down enough with the silent treatment and the endless stacks of adoption papers she had prepared in her office. "You are in no shape to bring up any child on your own. Give him to me."

"Why?" Shego cried. "I can be a mother too!"

"How, Shego?" Kim sneered cruelly. She wanted to hurt the woman. Just to hurt her. _Just hurt_. "How can a _cripple_ like you be a mother? You can't even change your own diapers, much less that of a baby. You're worthless, useless, and if not for me bringing you back from that godforsaken island, you'd be lying in a cesspool of your own shit and piss. Face it, _Shego_, maybe the best thing you could do for your baby, if you're not too selfish to think about someone else for the first time, would be kill yourself after your baby is born. Because, god knows, you don't deserve to be a mother, and no child deserves a monster like you as a mother."

Kim knew her words hit home, when Shego's eyes started water. She felt a sense of victory over her fallen opponent. After all those years of taunting and mockery, Shego's tough facade finally cracked. _This was payback for all three years of suffering that she has caused. _Drunk on her triumph, Kim pressed on, "Face it, Shego. Even you know it yourself. In your deepest darkest nightmares, you'd be abandoned by everyone around you. Team Go, Drakken, Ron, and even your own child, especially when she finds out that you are the cause for the death of her father. At least spare your child from the cruelty of knowing you."

"That's not fair, Kim..." Shego's voice was caught in a hitch.

"Shego, I'm the best chance that baby has of living a normal life," Kim homed in for the kill. "I can erase all the medical records, and I can make sure that there's nothing to relate her back to you. It'll be just like you never existed, and that is for the best. She will live a normal life, not knowing who her actual mother was."

Shego blinked her eyes as tears welled up. "No..." she bit her lip as she fought back the urge to cry. "It can't be... I can change... I can be a good mother..."Kim just stood there, unmoving with her arms firmly crossed over her chest. "I want to be a good mother," she mournfully whispered to herself.

"Why is this so important to you?" Kim asked, caught by surprise by her tenacity. "It's not like you've ever cared for anyone else in your life."

"You're wrong, Kim..." Shego sniffed as she wiped her nose with the back of her hand. "I can be a good mother... I can try... I can change..."

"Forget it, Shego, I'm not buying it," Kim replied with a steely voice.

"Maybe it's you who doesn't understand!" Shego cried out. "Maybe that's why you don't know. Did Ron ever tell you why he left you?"

Kim froze for a moment as her vision turned red. "It was because of you..." she tried to say as calmly as she could.

"No, Kim... It's because of you..." Shego replied reproachfully. "He was always in love with you. You should know that. His feelings have never changed. Not even while I was with him. Even when I tried to make him forget about you..."

"Ah hah!" Kim gloated triumphantly as she stabbed her finger dangerously close to Shego's face. "I knew it! You seduced him. You seduced and fucked _my_ Ron! That baby should have been mine!"

Shego gave her a strange sad look. "I don't care what you think, Princess..."

"And why should you anyway?" Kim interrupted her. "Why should you care? You killed him! You killed the only man I loved!"

"Has Ron ever talked to you about me?" Shego asked, before shaking her head as she corrected herself. "Of course he hasn't. That's why you went ballistic like you did." She lifted up the hem of her dress shirt, revealing her pale abdomen, framed by her ribs that poked through her skin like ridges. Twisting painfully to the side, she showed Kim the jagged scars that stretched across her lower back.

"This is why I can't walk. And why I am a cripple. And why I can't be a good mother, like you said." There was no bitterness or despair in her voice, just a calm serene statement that almost seemed chilling. "I'd died already, Kim. Thanks to you. You killed me that day..."

"Well, apparently I didn't kill you enough," Kim gritted her teeth as she turned her head away from the glaring shadow of a wound on her body. "And if you weren't pregnant with Ron's baby, I'd gladly kill you again and again until you stayed dead."

"And that's what kept Ron away from you!" Shego raised her voice hotly. "You never learn, do you? You'd do anything, _anything_! Just to have things your way! That's your problem, Kim, you always thought you were right, that's why it never occurred to you that it was your fault to begin with."

"Shut up! _Shut up, shut up, shut up_! You don't know the first thing about me!" Kim screamed back. Her control over the situation, the woman, had slipped away minutes ago and the realisation had just struck her. Shego was always good at this, irritating her, annoying her, getting under her skin and provoking her. That's always been her modus operandi. She needed to retreat, pull back for a moment and regroup for a renewed assault on the woman. This wasn't the plan... She needed to get under the woman's skin instead of the other way around. Kim turned away from her, trying to maintain her facade. She needed to get out of here. She needed...

"You're right, Kim," Shego spoke to her turned back. "I don't know the first thing about you. But Ron does." As the woman stood there unflinching, Shego asked, "Don't you want to know what was Ron thinking?"

She could see the red-head's back stiffened for a moment. Then wordlessly, she walked out of her bedroom and shut the door behind her as calmly as she could. Numbly, Kim stumbled back to her home office, before her shaking knees almost gave way. She steadied herself against her office desk, trying to catch her breath as she fought against the raging tide of fury and despair growing inside her. In frustration, she finally screamed, as her fingers clenched tightly at the edge of the table. She leaned over and swept every single piece of paper and every file off the table in a violent fit, before reaching over and picking up her laptop and flung it with all her might against the opposite wall. And when her fingers found nothing more she could fling, smash or destroy, she raised her hands to her face and cried...

* * *

**Author's Notes**

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. Also, but lesser known. Jaded zombies acted quietly but kept driving their oxen forward.

Sorry, no time to reply to reviews.


	3. Chapter 3

Shego never saw much of Kim for the rest of the day, or the next four days after she stormed out, save for her meals and toilet breaks. The red-head barely glanced at her or acknowledged her words as she helped Shego to the bathroom. But it was hard for her to feel bad for her former rival; she had her useless legs to remind her why she was here in the first place. But she couldn't find it in herself to enjoy the elation her old-self would have felt when she had heard Kim thrashing her own office in frustration.

In a way, she resigned to her fate of being fed and taken care by the sullen woman. There was no use talking to her, she reasoned. Shego was completely dependent on her, and she was completely dependent on Shego to safely bring her baby to term. A mutually inconvenient arrangement, she should think. She tried to push aside the thought of the moment when Kim didn't need her anymore, and she subconsciously caressed her belly. Her pregnancy wasn't just showing yet, but somehow she just knew that there was a new life growing inside her, and that was all she needed to bear the silence.

On the fifth day, after restlessly tossing in her bed, Kim appeared at the door. Shego was surprised to see her pushing a wheelchair. Not just one of those manual wheelchairs, but complete with a small electric motor and rechargeable batteries. Glancing up at Kim's stoic face, she waited for the red-head to say something.

"Don't get the wrong idea," Kim said bluntly. "It's not for you, it's for the baby. Unfortunately for now, taking care of the baby would mean taking care of you."

"Thanks," Shego mustered up enough sarcasm in her voice in defiance.

"Don't get any ideas about leaving this apartment," the red-head warned. "I've got an electronic perimeter set up around the apartment. If you as much as go past the living room, a silent alarm would go off on my Kimumicator and then the wheels would be locked. Then you either wait for me to come back here and unlock it, or drag your sorry ass all the way to the couch."

"So you're not exactly giving me any freedom, just a longer leash, right?"

Kim bit her lip from blurting out certain words that would make her lose control. "Just take it, and be grateful for the little things," she replied coldly as she pushed the wheelchair next to Shego's bed. "Get on."

Shego eyed the chair warily, as she kept looking over at Kim standing next to her bed with her arms crossed across her chest. "So finally I get the grand tour of your apartment," Shego snipped back. Gingerly, she reached over to the armrest of the wheelchair and tugged it a little just to make sure the wheels were properly locked in place. Slowly, she pulled herself up and over into the wheelchair. There was a time when she could have easily done one-handed pull-ups, or throw a three-hundred pound man over her shoulder. But her arms quivered as she breathed heavily from the effort of getting into the wheelchair.

It didn't help one bit when Kim just stood there and watched her without raising a finger. Finally, she sat down and let out a sigh of relief and triumph. Wiping a strand of hair off her forehead, she quickly looked over the controls of the wheelchair. It seemed simple enough, a small joystick to manoeuvre, a button to lock and unlock the wheels, a flashing indicator for battery life and finally an SOS button. She gently pushed the joystick forward and was pleasantly surprised to hear the whirling of the electric motor as it inched forward slowly without jolting. She might not win any Paralympics with this, but in the least, she could get herself to the bathroom without relying on Kim.

"Good," Kim interrupted her thoughts. "Come with me." Without waiting for the woman, she walked out the room, leaving the door ajar for Shego to follow.

Annoyed, but happy over her newfound freedom, Shego followed the red-haired woman into the rest of the apartment. She'd never seen Kim's apartment beyond the four walls of her prison bedroom and adjoining bathroom. To her surprise, Kim lived a very Spartan lifestyle, much unlike her old teenager bedroom back in Middleton at her parents' place. The walls were a light cream colour, accented by the white marble floors, and draped with black furniture. A long black L-shaped couch faced a black TV cabinet with black tinted glass. And in between sat a rectangular black coffee table, immaculately kept with not a single speck of dust on it. Even the kitchen cabinets were black.

Shego let out a little sigh. For a woman, she definitely had no sense of colour. The apartment felt more like a showcase rather than an actual home. Even the pictures hung on the wall were simple oil paintings that were non-descript in nature, just blind splashing of paint to evoke an abstractness about the place. Her brow furrowed as she realised that this could be the apartment of just about anyone. There was nothing that said that Kim Possible lived her, none of her pictures, news clippings or accolades adorned the wall. There wasn't even a single magazine on the table to hint what sort of person lived here. She shuddered a bit; this was no different than many of the evil lairs which Dr Drakken skulked around in most of his time; this was simply a place of residence, nothing more.

She followed Kim into her office, where a long oak desk sat in the middle of the room facing the door. Kim had pulled aside the guest chairs and gestured for the woman to move closer to the desk. For a moment, Shego took her time to gaze around the office. At least this place felt a little more lived in. Although the bookshelves were stacked with thick law tomes, regulation guidelines, compliance materials and case files, there was a semblance of humanity in the least, in the form of a white mug with a yellow poppy flower adorning it on the desk, next to Kim's new laptop. Still, Shego noted that there was not a single photo or picture frame in the entire room.

"So I got the grand tour of the place," Shego replied, trying to feign disinterest. "So where do I fill out the survey?"

Wordlessly, Kim reached into a side drawer and pulled out a compact digital voice recorder. Without even asking for her permission, Kim hit the record button and set it down gently on her desk, before propping her elbows on the desks and interlocking her fingers. "Tell me about Ron," she spoke calmly.

"Huh," Shego snorted as she looked disdainfully at the voice recorder. "What's that for?"

"For my records," Kim replied without hesitation.

"Why would I want to tell you anything?" Shego asked.

Slowly Kim drummed her fingers on the table as she looked unflinching at the black-haired woman sitting opposite her. "You're right," Kim finally said. "I never asked you about what happened between you and Ron the day you escaped from the hospital. So I'm giving you a chance now to tell your story."

"Hmph," Shego snorted bemusedly. "Giving me a chance, Princess? This would be the first time, isn't it?"

Kim maintained her silence. She tilted her head a little to the side and looked at the digital voice recorder on her table, before turning back to look at Shego. "It's still recording," she spoke. "Say whatever you want to say."

"Alright," Shego muttered to herself. She leaned towards the table, with her face inches away from the digital voice recorder and yelled in a loud voice, "Kim Possible is a frigid bitch who kidnapped me, held me against my will and plans to steal my baby." Glancing up at Kim, Shego found herself mildly annoyed that the woman had not shown any sort of reaction to her words. She went on, "Kim Possible is the biggest Global Justice slut in the world, but no one would screw her because she'd break their dicks off and eat them for breakfast. So she has the largest collection of dildos which she uses to frig herself to sleep every night." Shego paused for the moment, before she added, "Up her ass."

The black-haired woman leaned back into her wheelchair with a contented look on her face. "There, I said it," Shego announced with a smug look on her face.

"Okay, now that we've got that out of the way," Kim took a deep breath and maintained her composure, "What happened the night you and Ron escaped from Global Justice's prison hospital?"

"Huh," Shego deflated a little when she realised that Kim wasn't going to rise to the bait. "So we're all serious and work-like now, huh? That's why you have the whole office scene thing for this interrogation?"

"How did you escape, Shego?"

"You can't handle the truth!" Shego drawled in her best Jack Nicholson impersonation. They locked gazes for a moment, as the raven-haired woman attempted to stare Kim down. Shego finally let out a defeated sigh. "Okay, fine, since you're so intent on knowing... The truth is I don't know."

"Shego..."

"I'm serious," Shego shrugged her shoulders slightly. "Anti-climax, I know. But I really don't know. I was so drugged up on meds that I have been slipping in between consciousness and lala-land the whole time. I was in a lot of pain, remember? All I could recall was my face pressing up against Ron's chest as he carried me away. But if you want my guess, I think he used the window."

"Eight storeys high?"

"Well, he definitely didn't take the front door, if that's what you were asking," Shego replied sarcastically. "That night, he snuck into my room and whispered my name. Then the next thing I know, he was carrying me through the hospital parking lot, before he bundled me into the back of an SUV and drove off."

"Okay, so where'd you go after that?"

"I just remembered a lot of travelling at first, we rode for hours, days even, on cars, buses, planes and boats. You name it, we probably hitched a ride on it," Shego replied. "I was still in a lot of pain, and Ron gave me some pills every time the pain got too much to handle. It took away much of the pain, but it pretty much took away everything else. Then, I remember that it was one early morning when Ron was carrying me on his back, while he hiked up a mountain trail to the middle of nowhere."

"Mountain?"

"Hey, I might have gone wrong in the head, after the beating you gave me," Shego replied nonchalantly. "But I remember a glorious orange sunrise, and I kinda thought for a moment that I'd died and Ron was carrying me to heaven."

"So where did he take you?"

"There was this old dojo hidden in the mountains, someplace where Ron use to go over his summers, or something," Shego explained.

"Yamanouchi..." Kim breathed.

"Yeah, yeah," Shego looked at Kim quizzically. "That's the place. There was this old man who came out to greet us, he was no taller than five feet, and but he reminds me of Mr Miyagi. Somehow, Ron was like a big kahuna there, and I got the royal treatment with attendants fawning over me, giving me a much needed hot bath and tending my wounds. It was the first time in days that I felt remotely human and the pain melted into a dull throbbing in my back. But somehow, as nightfall came, Ron made me bade farewell as we couldn't stay there long, because he knew that you would come looking for him there soon."

"He's right," Kim breathed. "Sensei told me that you'd left just the day before I arrived."

"Yup, boo hoo," Shego grinned. "After that, we snuck onto a cargo boat headed for Bangkok. Ron managed to find a small room for the two of us in some cramp immigrant lodging, and get some illegal work hauling cargo off the boats. He'd manage to dye his hair black, but even then, the locals know a _farang_ when they see one, and it was really hard to keep a low profile especially with Wade constantly on the prowl on the Internet for any mention of a young Caucasian man and a crippled woman."

"What happened next?"

"The cops came busting down on us after barely a week," Shego remarked. "Guess Interpol was doing its job. Anyway, we manage to escape after Ron bribed one of the inspectors. That took out a lot of our remaining savings, and we were really running short of funds at that time already. I wasn't even sure we'd make it then, and sooner or later you would somehow catch up to us. I could see that Ron was worried because he was just making things up as we go, but he kept a brave face trying to reassure me that he had a plan and everything was going to be okay."

"I see. Where did you go after that?"

"Ron stole a car," Shego went on. "That was kinda... Impressive."

"So you are impressed by random dishonest acts of thievery?" Kim asked pointedly.

"Well, yeah, in a way..." Shego smiled sheepishly to herself. "I mean, I knew he smuggled an escaped fugitive out of the country, evaded police and probably broke half a dozen international laws during the whole thing. But to see him jimmy open the car door and hotwire it in under a minute, that was impressive. That was sort of when I realised the kind of man he is and how far he would go for his friends." Shego gazed at Kim with a sad look on her face, "Now I understand why he would go on all those crazy missions with you even though he never wanted to do anything more than play Zombie Mayhem."

"I never forced him to come," Kim replied defensively.

"No, but you exploited the fact that he wouldn't let you go on missions alone." Shego locked eyes with the red-haired woman.

Looking into those glazed eyes, Kim flinched and looked down at her hands on the table. Her eyes shifted over to the digital voice recorder. Clearing her throat, she asked, "So after Bangkok where did you guys go?"

"You know, seeing as the police are after us, of course we'd go to a place without police..." Shego replied nonchalantly. "Well, legit police anyway. We went up north through the jungles of Burma to lose your trail, then crossed over to Bangladesh, India then Sri Lanka. Painfully, slowly... Sometimes Ron carried me, sometimes we got a lift from a village farmer, and sometimes Ron would push a cart with me in it. It was a long trip, we were mostly wet, tired and hungry, but we simply had to stay off the radar. And I don't know how, but we ended up on some remote island in the middle of the Indian Ocean."

"Where I finally found you."

"Yup, three years later." Shego nodded her head.

"I heard you were a total bitch to Ron those three years," Kim spoke evenly, as she glanced sideways at the digital voice recorder to make sure that it was still recording.

"What do you mean?"

"An old man on the island told me that you treated Ron badly."

"You mean Jarlow who owns the only dingy store in the whole fucking island?" Shego snorted in contempt. "That old bugger wouldn't forgive anything! I just called it like it is. He gave Ron nothing but scraps and leftovers. His chickens were half-dead when Ron got them, and he spent a sleepless week just trying to nurse them back from the brink of death. And he had the gall to come knocking on our door asking for payment."

"You killed him."

Shego fell silent at her words. She shut her eyes, pretending that she didn't blink to hide her tears. "Look," Shego looked up as she shook her head. "I would admit that I could have treated Ron a lot better. I wasn't the easiest person to live with but could you blame me? I lost everything, my bank accounts, my belongings, my legs, my life..." Shego suddenly stopped as a shadow of a smile crept to her lips. "I remember screaming at Ron that I won't be able to walk in heels again. You know what he did? He knelt down and gave me a foot rub and said legs this beautiful don't need heels to show them off." Shego studied Kim closely, wondering if she would fly into a jealous rage again at her words, but the red-haired woman remained stoic.

Kim spoke in a low voice, "But you still drove him away..."

"I tried to..." Shego started, but bit her lip. "I didn't want him to waste his life on someone like me. I asked him to take me back. At least that way he'd probably get off on a lighter punishment because of all the hero work he's done. He didn't deserve any of this; all he did was being a good friend."

"At least that's one thing we agree upon," Kim pursed her lips tightly. "He should have turned you in and I could have gotten him off with a light jail sentence in light of everything he has done in saving the world."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Shego yawned tiredly. She leaned forward and looked at Kim strangely for a moment. "Now that we're both here laying our hearts open before each other, what the hell happened between you and Ron?"

"What do you mean?" Kim muttered evasively. "Nothing happened."

"Ron has told me many stories about you," Shego explained, as she leaned closer with her arms on Kim's desk. "So many stories, so much that I do feel that I am the one who actually grew up with you." She tilted her head to the side and wondered out loud, "But there was one thing that bothered me about all his stories... He never told any stories about you after your junior year in college. Why?"

"Because there wasn't anything to tell," Kim finished simply.

"Oh, come on," Shego snorted with disbelief. "I poured my heart out here, and you tell me that you have nothing to say? What happened to the two of you?"

"I was busy," Kim sniffed unconvincingly. "It's not easy juggling an internship, two majors and a world-saving job at the same time."

"Too busy to care about Ron?"

"I never stopped caring about Ron!" Kim found her voice rising. Taking a deep breath, she repeated calmly, "I never stopped caring about Ron. He understood how busy I was. He knew that I needed some space."

"You distanced yourself from him," Shego observed.

"No!" Kim protested. "No, no... Nothing like that! It was only temporary! Only until we graduated."

"Okay," Shego replied, sounding unconvinced. "What happened after you graduated then?"

"We were still together," Kim replied, a hint of hostility creeping into her voice. "If that's what you're asking."

"But you joined Global Justice, right?"

"They had already given me a letter of conditional employment before I entered college."

"Right, and Ron too?"

"Yeah, I made sure he could join me."

"But you didn't work with him," Shego noted.

"We..." Kim struggled to find the word. "We were assigned to different departments."

"But you could have transferred to where Ron was..."

"It was the fast-track programme to become a senior field operative!" Kim crossed her arms as she leaned back in her chair. "I could have picked my own missions and my own team, and I was going to choose Ron as my second."

"And look how that turned out for you?"

"Just because I took my eyes off Ron for one moment that doesn't mean that some cheap floozy can swoop in and steal him from under me," Kim snapped at the woman.

"We were just friends!" Shego exploded incredulously. "Could you get it into your thick numbskull? We were just drinking buddies!"

"Drinking buddies who get knocked up, huh?" Kim growled sarcastically.

Shego hung her head and sighed. "We just hung out together and reminisce about old times! Sure, I was a criminal and all, but even Ron knew that I had my off days!"

"But you loved him! You admitted it yourself!"

"After you broke my back, Ron became my world! He saved me! He took care of me! He bathed me, fed me and wiped the damned shit off my ass!" Shego raised her voice. "You must have a heart of stone not to fall in love with someone who would do all of that for you! But I would never do anything to hurt him! Never! Which is much more than I can say for you!"

"Me? What have I ever done to hurt him?"

"You did something to Ron that he would _never_ do to you! You put yourself before him!" Shego accused. "Wasn't it always finishing your assignments before Ron? Or graduating with honors then go on a date with Ron? Or get your promotion first, or finish your paperwork, or whatever... Don't you see? That's what you've been doing to him! You put all your achievements before Ron, and you are so proud of everything you've achieved that you forgot completely about what you had!"

"No I didn't!"

"So you say..." Shego drawled. "Just look at your apartment here. This is the results of your desire for success! You are a successful commander in Global Justice, your pips pull enough weight such that you can smuggle me into the country without so much as a blip on the radar of all the world's intelligence agency, and let me just say, you are a snappy dresser. That blouse is what? At least two hundred dollars?"

"It was a gift," Kim mumbled apprehensively. And then she added softly, almost as an afterthought, "From Ron..."

"See? He gave you all that!" Shego exclaimed. "But have you ever taken the time, set your priorities aside just to sit by his side one evening and ask him what does he want?"

"He would..." Kim closed her eyes for a moment. "He would have wanted to spend the night in front of the television with a box of pizza, watching some cheesy classic zombie movie."

"And when was the last time you did something like that?"

"Just after graduation," Kim paused and bit her lip. "High school graduation." She looked at Shego defiantly, "But that was so dumb! He knows I don't like zombie movies! It's lame, the effects are so fake and you already know when someone is going to die! It's almost as bad as those 90s teenage scream movies."

"And if it was so dumb, why couldn't you do it?" Shego asked. "What's so hard about just spending some time with the man you love? Because he sure as did everything you wanted to do, even if, in your own words, all he ever wanted to do was curl up in a couch watching some cheesy classic zombie movie _with you_!"

"Because..." Kim pursed her lips tightly before snapping back. "Look, I don't have to answer to you! If Ron wanted me to spend time with him, he would have just told me instead of sneaking out behind my back to hang out with you!"

"And is that what you tell yourself so that you can sleep at night?" Shego asked pointedly.

Kim suddenly stood up from behind her chair and slammed both palms on the table. "Look, what happened between me and Ron stays between me and Ron. You're nothing but a slutty interloper who wormed your way in between our relationship and my only regret is that I never threw you in prison earlier," Kim replied defiantly.

Shego stared at the dark shadow that clouded Kim's face. "I..." Shego's voice faltered a little. "Okay, fine, Kim... Have it your way. I'm a little tired with all this..." she waved her hands in the air. "I honestly don't like you and clearly you hate me with all your guts. But believe me when I say that before you attacked me, broke my spine and left me in a pool of my own blood in the alley, I had no romantic feelings for Ron. If I had known what a sweet person he was a lot sooner and what a total bitch you are, I'd have tried to steal his heart a lot sooner because Ron definitely deserved better."

Kim just glared at her silently as Shego's words lingered in the air. The raven-haired woman continued in a strong voice, "I really don't care how you feel anymore or trying to make you understand that it was your fault that you drove Ron away. I just want to raise Ron's baby because his baby is the last piece of good thing he left in this world and... Just, Kim... I'm tired of fighting..."

"This isn't over yet..."

"Whatever you want," Shego replied listlessly as she nudged the joystick on her wheelchair. "But the fact is Ron isn't here anymore and you can hold on to old grudges all you want. But me? I've got my baby to look forward to." Slowly the electric motor whirled and she turned to head out of the office when suddenly she felt the wheelchair jolt. Looking back she realised that Kim had stepped out from behind her desk and grasped the handles of the wheelchair. Shego glanced back up at the red-haired in surprise. "I can find my way back, you know."

"Just making sure you get back to your room," Kim mumbled under her breath.

"Right," Shego sat back in her chair, as Kim flipped the light switch of her office on the way out.

* * *

**Author's Notes**

You guys know I don't reply to reviews anymore, right? Right, so be ungrateful and don't leave a review. Let's see if reverse psychology works. But then ah-hah! I could be planning to make you guys not write a review so that I feel less guilty about replying to reviews, but then again maybe since you know that I know that you know that I'm not replying to reviews, maybe you don't know that I know that you know that I know that you know that...

Inconceivable!

And that would be my antepenultimate rant for the day.


	4. Chapter 4

Shego watched in annoyance as the two women seemed to argue at the foot of her bed, ignoring her as though she was nothing more than a piece of furniture. On the left was none other than that fiery red-head in a Global Justice Commander uniform gesturing angrily in her direction. _Gesturing would be to put it mildly, as she stabbed her finger furiously in her direction trying to poke her eye out, _Shego added moodily. The woman on the right was largely unknown to her. From what she could gather from the cold introduction by Kim, Dr Tara King used to be a classmate of Ron's and also a member of Kim's old cheerleading squad back in Middleton High. And her appointed gynecologist.

Dressed in a smart casual fleece turtleneck and black suit pants with a knee-length lab coat draped loosely over her svelte frame, she pushed a pair of frameless spectacles up onto the bridge of her nose and spoke calmly as possible to Kim in a cold tone of finality as she crossed her arms over her ample bosom, "I don't _care_ even if she is the BTK Murderer, Kim. She's my patient and I can handle myself. Now, please leave so I can tend to my patient _in private_."

Kim uttered a strangled sound from the back of her throat as she glared furiously at Shego who was sitting upright in her bed wondering what the hell the fuss was about. "If she makes a move, I'll be just outside," Kim muttered as she marched herself off towards the door. Without turning to look at the bedridden woman, Kim warned her, "Try anything and I'll put you a chemical coma until the baby is born."

Shego was almost sure that she'd slam the door, but Kim had just managed to restrain herself enough to leave a crack in the door.

Tara tut-tutted after the steaming red-head. "Now that she's gone…"

"You do know that was pretty useless, right?" Shego finally spoke up as she sat upright in her bed.

"What, kicking her out of the room?"

"Yeah," Shego replied sourly. "This is her apartment and I've already found eighteen different bugs and cameras in this room alone. If there's definitely one thing I'm not getting, that's any privacy."

"It's the principal of the thing," Tara replied sweetly as she stepped closer towards the bed. "Kim has to know that there are limits to things she can do. Also, I have a conscience and I have sworn an oath not to violate any doctor-patient confidentiality as far as I can help it."

From the living room, Kim called out, "You do know that doctor-patient confidentiality only extends as far as the law, and you're still professionally obligated to report any illegal activity?"

Tara rolled her eyes and strode over to the door and yanked it open. Sticking her head out, she called out, "You mean like harboring an escaped fugitive?" Before giving Kim a chance for a snippy comeback, Tara slammed the door shut and leaned against the door.

Shego just gave her the see-what-I-mean look.

"Well now," Tara smiled sweetly as she pulled out a pair of latex gloves from her lab coat and slipped them on. "Now that the distraction is out of the way, how are you doing?"

"Okay I guess," Shego studied the blonde woman carefully. "How did you do that?"

"Do what?" Tara asked as she calmly picked up a clipboard and started writing.

"You know, get her to shut up," Shego angled her head towards the door.

"Ah…" Tara smiled knowingly as she picked up a glass thermometer. "She trusts me enough to make me her accomplice in breaking several international laws. Right, Kim?" she said out loud to the room before flashing a predatory grin. "But since I work for her mom... I think she'd rather face the firing squad than have her mom questioning her as to why she is keeping you prisoner in her apartment. Now open your mouth and stick this under your tongue."

Shego was really starting to like this woman and she found herself smiling as she held the thermometer under her tongue. Glancing at her watch, Tara lifted her stethoscope to her ears and pressed the knob against Shego's chest. "Now breathe in," she ordered. After a moment, Tara nodded her head and noted a few more figures down onto the medical chart before withdrawing the thermometer from her mouth.

"So… Doesn't this bother you?" Shego asked hesitantly.

"Your lungs are clear. But your temperature is a bit higher than normal, but I suppose that's because of your physiological difference because of the meteor," Tara mused absent-mindedly as she flipped through the charts. "At least I have something to go on as Kim managed to obtain your medical records through some means as to which I shall not speculate."

"Ahem," Shego cleared her throat. "I mean, are you okay with helping me? You could be looking as much as 15 years for helping me."

"It's okay," Tara patted her hand gently with a smile. "I could just say that Kim threatened me and my family."

Shego's mouth dropped as she looked at the blonde woman in shock. Pretending to wipe a fake tear off the edge of her eye, she sniffed and smiled, "Ah… Blackmail and deceit… You're a woman after my own heart."

"Besides, how could I not help you?" Tara continued with a warm smile. "You're Ron's wife."

"Ah… Hold that thought," Shego interrupted her, blushing furiously. "We are… Were not married." She corrected herself softly.

"Shego, Shego, Shego… Marriage isn't just having a church ceremony or civil contract before the state," Tara replied soothingly. She placed a hand on Shego's still-unswollen stomach and spoke solemnly, "It is a stage of relationship where two people love each other so much that they have committed their lives to each other. And this is the proof of their love: you're the mother of Ron's child."

Shego felt a twitch in her heart as she instinctively raised her hand to touch Tara's. She looked into the blonde doctor's blue eyes for a moment before clearing her throat. Turning her face aside, Shego muttered, "I bet you're just saying this to rile Kim up."

Tara let out a light laugh as she stood back up. "There's that too," she admitted easily. "That'll teach her to eavesdrop on a private consultation. But…" she looked at the raven-haired woman, "That doesn't mean that it isn't true."

"Somehow I get the feeling that you're enjoying this too much," Shego said as she glanced sideways at the door.

"To be honest," Tara answered, her voice suddenly became somber, "Not many of us agreed with Kim's actions, especially the way she treated Ron or you."

"Tell me about it," Shego replied sarcastically as she gestured at her limp legs.

Tara smiled sympathetically and continued, "Anyway, here's a piece of trivia for you. In my sophomore year in high school, I had a bit of a crush on Ron."

Shego opened her eyes a little wider as she felt something strange stir in her heart. "And…" She regarded the blonde doctor cautiously.

"And nothing came out of it," Tara laughed as she shrugged her shoulders. "Ron didn't catch on. I thought he was a pretty sweet guy, the way he threw himself into danger just to save us from his mutant childhood friend… Yeah I know, long story. He'd always struck me as a knight-in-shining-armor kind of guy, except that he just wasn't my knight." She gave Shego a strange look.

"Right…" Shego blushed as she mentally filed away this piece of trivia and made a note to look more into it when she had access to a computer. "You know what, Dr King?" Shego spoke her mind, "I think you'd be a better match for Ron than Kim."

"Hey!" Tara laughed as she jerked her head towards the door. "Are you just trying to push all of Kim's buttons now? You do know she can make your life a living hell after I'm gone."

"It can't get any worse the way she's treating me right now," Shego shrugged with a smile. "But I mean what I said. I mean, Ron had his eyes only for her when he was clearly too good for her."

"Really?" Tara raised an eyebrow.

"Uh huh," Shego went on. "Kim's clearly got some sort of superiority complex, and she has all but told me that she had put her career ahead of Ron. She took him for granted that he'd always be there when she's finally ready to settle down and get married. Ron definitely deserved better than that."

"That's interesting," Tara replied with a slight nod. "Why do you say that?"

"Because… Because!" Shego raised her voice, wanting to make sure that Kim heard her clearly. "Because Ron always played second fiddle to her decisions. She'd always drag him around the world doing whatever she wanted, while he was content to help her fulfill her dreams and ambitions. I remember Ron telling me all through high school, she'd always go to school dances with all the hotties, only to fall back on him when she couldn't find anyone else to measure up to her expectations. C'mon, she put him through platonic-best-friend-hell for the most of his teenage life."

"She wasn't the only one who took him for granted, you know?"

"What do you mean?" Shego looked puzzled at the doctor.

"I mean…" she repeated herself, "She wasn't the only one who took advantage of his kindness. From what I heard, you weren't that great of a friend to Ron either."

"Ahem…" Shego lowered her head a little and spoke in a small whisper, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"From what Kim told me…" she held up a finger just as Shego was about to protest. "Yes, Kim's views may be biased, but from _other_ stories I've heard from certain parties prior to you and Ron's disappearance… All those late night drinking when you were in a bad mood over whichever guy that you broke up with and Ron had to drive across town to carry your ass out of a puddle of vomit to the nearest motel." She look deadpanned at the raven-haired woman sitting up in bed, "I did run into him once and he was sporting this ugly black-and-blue eye, and when I asked him about it, he just smiled and said that he stopped a friend from hurting her fist by using his face."

Shego sat silently and wrung her fingers together. "I wouldn't do that intentionally, okay?" she mumbled guiltily. "I was drunk."

"Anyway," Tara sighed. "What I'm trying to say here is that we are all guilty, one way or another, of not appreciating Ron for the man he truly is. It's easy to call Kim out on her mistakes, but it's a little harder especially when you realize that they are also your mistakes. You know what I mean?"

"Yeah…" Shego sighed to herself. "I just wish there was some way I could make up for all the mean things I've done to him."

"Just so you know, he has already forgiven you."

"I know, and that's what I can't accept," her voice trembled a little as she spoke. "He's just… I miss him so much…"

"We all do," Tara replied as she held the woman's hand in hers. Patting the woman gently on the back, she asked, "Anyway, since Kim went through all the trouble of getting a sonogram, why don't we have the first look at your baby?"

"Yes, thank you Dr King," Shego smiled with reddened eyes, as she absent-mindedly wiped her nose with the back of her hand.

* * *

Dr King had left after prescribing a course of multivitamins and a breath of fresh air, much to Kim's ire. The blonde doctor had mischievously warned her that she would expect Kim to treat her 'prisoner' better and if Shego had any serious complaints, she would bring it up to Dr Anne Possible immediately. After leaving her phone number and explicit instructions to Shego to call her if she had any problems or would just like to chat, Kim was more than a little anxious to show Dr King the door.

Shego smiled to herself as she glanced at the grainy black and white printout of the sonogram in her hand. The little three-by-four inches snapshot of the fetus… Her baby. There wasn't much to see, it had only been two and a half months, and she could only see an oversized bulbous head from a white blobby mass and two small appendages which where its hands. It was still too early to tell the sex, but she was trying to fight back the cascade of feelings raging up inside her as she stared dumbly at the picture in her hand.

"Can I have a look?"

Shego looked up to see Kim standing in the doorway with her hands shoved into her pockets. Looking at her for a moment, Shego finally nodded her head. "Yeah," she found her voice. "Here." She offered the picture to the red-head.

Accepting the picture, Kim stared at the printout of the sonogram as she looked closely at it.

"It's not much to see," Shego offered to explain. "It's still too early to tell whether it's a boy or a girl."

"I know that…" Kim replied as she bit down on her tongue, although she continued to stare at the picture in her hand.

"It's surreal, huh?" Shego finally broke the silence. "I'm actually going to be a mom."

The red-head ignored her words. Her eyes flickered as she considered keeping the picture, before she reluctantly handed the printout back to Shego. Wordlessly, she strode out of the room, remembering to shut the door behind her. Shego clasped the picture in her hand as she stared at the door. It wasn't like Kim to just leave like that without leaving a few spiteful words behind.

She considered it for a moment before her eyes turned back to the grainy picture, and all thoughts of Kim vanished, only to be replaced by a soft smile on her lips. Lying back into bed, she carefully set the picture by her nightstand and as she looked at it, she could only murmur to herself, "My baby…"

* * *

"... and that's when Drakken finally gave up trying to take over the world because of a blueberry muffin," Wade concluded his story with a beaming smile as his face was projected on the hi-def 62" television in the living room.

Shego roared with laughter as she slapped her knee. "So..." she smiled as she wiped a tear out of the corner of her eye. "That's pretty much the last of the rogue's gallery, huh?"

"I know it's sort of bad to say this," Wade replied wistfully, "But I do miss those days of villains actually trying to take over the world. It was sort of clichéd but it was classic."

"Like a Bond villain, or a cheesy comic super-villain," Shego added.

"Yeah," Wade nodded his head. "These days the villains that Global Justice is chasing after are more of the corporate type that hides behind their armies of lawyers. It's one thing to catch them, but with the right legal team, they'd be waltzing back down the streets with impunity."

"Meh, times change," Shego replied as her smile faded away. She pulled her numb legs up onto the couch and started massaging them to get the blood flowing. "So Wade is it okay for you to be conversing with the 'enemy'?" she asked, emphasizing with air-quotes.

"Ah..." Wade chuckled nervously as he glanced at something off-screen. "Let's see, Kim's GPS locator still shows that she's in her GJ office. So we're safe for the moment."

"And so a new villain is born," Shego grinned to herself. "Now Kim can add the evil that you do to my long list of sins too."

"That's a little harsh," Wade clucked his tongue.

"Hey, whiz-kid," Shego snorted. "I know you've got the whole place bugged and under surveillance 24/7, just in case I decide to pull the greatest cripple escape from Kim's Alcatraz. You've definitely been privy to all our conversations, so don't pretend you don't know."

"Yeouch..." Wade replied awkwardly. "Was it that obvious?"

"Kid," Shego gave a sly smile as her voice drawled over the nickname which hardly befitted the chunky teen who'd almost seem like a giant at 18 years of age. "I can read you like a book."

Wade laughed and slid back into his seat. "Well... Kim ordered me to watch you, but she didn't order me not to talk to you. I figure I can watch you better if I'm talking to you."

"Watch me, huh?" Shego raised an eyebrow.

"Bathroom's off-limits, of course..." Wade hurriedly added.

"Good, because, kid, if I find any sort of spy camera while I'm doing my business," Shego gave a toothy grin. "By heaven or hell, you're not going to find a safe place to hide from me."

Wade gave a nervously laugh.

"Kid," Shego's face suddenly broke out into a laugh. "Whatever, I was just kidding. Hey, I should be flattered that a hormone-raging teenager like you would find a middle-aged pregnant cripple like me worth drooling over. But…" Shego's face suddenly sprouted a sinister grin. "The show's not free you know…"

Wade gulped. "I have _absolutely_ no idea what you're talking about."

"Oh, you know…" Shego twirled the remote control in her hand lazily. "A woman can really get bored around here with nothing to watch on TV, you know…"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I'm stuck here with local channels that shows nothing but news while there are hundreds and hundreds…" Shego made sure to emphasize each hundred with a seductive lick of her lips. "Of satellite channels just waiting for a lil' bored woman like me."

"Oh come on, you can't be serious!"

"Do you actually know what it's like to be coped up in here with absolutely nothing to do?" Shego growled as she twisted the couch pillow in her hands. "Nothing, nothing! There are no books in here, there're no DVDs or any sort of entertainment and c'mon! I'm not even allowed to go anywhere near a computer. Imagine!" Shego raised her arm and pointed at the screen. "Imagine being without the internet for five minutes, Wade!"

A visible shudder trembled through his shoulder and his mouth opened to form a perfect 'O'.

"Yes, now multiply that by five weeks and then you come close to the hell I'm going through!" Shego argued.

"But what you're asking me to do is a felony!" Wade cried out.

"Have a little sympathy here! You know what it is like!" Shego threw up her arms in frustration as she pointed at her left ear, "I am literally bored out of my mind that I could feel my brains oozing out of here."

"I could go to jail for this!"

"True…" Shego hmm-ed conspiratorially as she tapped her chin. "That would be true… _if you got caught…_"

"No, no, no, Shego…" Wade warned her suddenly. "You're not pulling that one on me. That's how all villainy begins doesn't it?"

"Actually villainy begins with a lot of peer mocking…" Shego grinned. "But you have to admit that you're _good_ enough not to get caught. Don't you want to test that?"

"No way! I'm not doing it…"

"C'mon, Wade, it's a _victimless_ crime…" Shego raised an eyebrow. "It's not like you've never downloaded mp3s before…"

"This isn't the same as downloading those mp3s!"

"Is it, Wade? Is it?"

Wade groaned as he slammed his forehead on the keyboard. Grudgingly, he looked at her and mumbled, "Fine, I'll hack those satellite channels for you… But if Kim finds out, I'd say you blackmailed me into doing this…"

"Fine, fine," Shego grinned happily as she grabbed the TV remote. "Besides, she blames me for everything already, including global warming."

"That's not fair, Shego," Wade protested as he tapped away at his keyboard. "You gave her as much grief if not more…"

"Really now?" Shego asked flippantly. "Like I care…"

"C'mon, Shego," Wade sighed. "She's a lot frailer than you think. She used to have Ron's shoulder to cry on. You know what really sucks? I know that she started crying again last night."

"Again?"

"Yeah dammit," Wade shook his head sadly. "The Kimmunicator has this surveillance mode which I can remotely activate just in case Team Possible was incapacitated and I could act through the device. And ever since Ron's disappeared, well, I was worried for her. We were all worried for her, so I kept that channel open and it breaks my heart to hear her crying herself to sleep every night…"

"You spied on her!"

"Umm…" Wade gulped. "Yeah, what else could I do? She was falling apart! She wouldn't open up to anyone at all, and I was afraid for her."

"It wouldn't have happened if she wasn't so heartless in the first place."

"It's not easy for Kim, okay?" Wade argued. "Just try to think what it is like to be her for a while. Because of her intelligence, athleticism and natural talent in a lot of things, she was in a class of her own. Most people she knew was in one way or another a little jealous of her abilities. Even her friends were sycophantic opportunists who just wanted to see her fail. A lot of people wanted to see Miss Perfect fail. People like you."

"Yes, but at least I wasn't pretending to be her friend or anything…"

"She only had Ron," Wade replied sadly. "One of the most genuine friends that she ever had and could count on. When he was gone, she cried for the longest time that I could remember, but always in private. I knew that she wouldn't let anyone else see those tears. So I'm asking you, Shego, as a favor of course," he gulped a little, his Adam's apple bobbing. "Could you just give in to her once in a while and be nice to her?"

Shego snorted as she fiddled with the TV remote in her hand. "Wade," she drawled as she stretched her arms out. "You're killin' me here… You're killin' me…"

"I'm serious here…"

"Fine, fine," Shego turned her head away as she laid on her side on the couch. "Whatever you say… I'll try to be nice to her…"

* * *

Shego was busy flipping through the Hungarian home shopping network when the front door opened and Kim strode into the apartment. The raven-haired woman turned to look at the sullen entrant who shucked her work bag into the hallway and strode purposefully past her to the kitchen. Kim had barely acknowledged the fact that she was currently surfing through 800 channels of mind-numbing satellite television. Shego watched her every move closely, thinking of what Wade had said earlier.

The red-haired was no longer the perky teeny bopper she once knew and fought. Her sparkling green eyes which were so full of hopes and dreams once were replaced with the jaded look of suspicion as she glanced over at Shego. With a look of barely disguised disdain, she turned towards the overhead kitchen cabinet and pulled out a box of cereal and poured herself a bowl of cornflakes. Opening the fridge door, she grabbed a jug of milk and poured it into the bowl.

"You know," Shego called out to her. "There's some leftover pizza in the fridge. Wade had some delivered this afternoon."

Kim just let out a grunt as she shoveled the cereal into her mouth hungrily. Slurping down the last drops of milk, she left the bowl unwashed in the sink and headed straight to her bedroom, slamming the door behind her.

Shrugging her shoulders, Shego turned back to her television watching. Aimlessly flipping through the channels, she found it harder to concentrate on whatever inane gimmicks they were advertising. Her eyes kept darting towards the door of Kim's bedroom. With a sigh, she pulled herself into her wheelchair and ambled over to the door. She raised a hand to knock before pausing for a moment. She found herself arguing, _C'mon… Leave the poor girl alone. She wants to be left alone._

She leaned her head closer to the door for a moment, before ascertaining there was no sound from behind. _Must be in the shower,_ she told herself. _Let's do this later…_ Just as she was about to wheel herself back to the couch, suddenly Kim's door swung open and the red-head almost tripped over Shego.

"Ah…" Shego suddenly found her voice stuck in her throat as she looked up at the flaming red-haired woman as though she just got caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

"What?" Her voice was cold and even as she gazed down at the woman in the wheelchair with piercing cold eyes.

"Err…" Shego's eyes darted around nervously. She gave a small cough before saying, "Hey, you wanna watch a movie together or something?"

Kim raised an eyebrow for a moment as she looked at the woman searchingly. "What's your game, Shego?" she asked cautiously.

"Nothing?" Shego replied with a shrug. "Wade just hacked into all the satellite channels and now we can watch anything we want from Russian lesbian ballet porn to African safari real-time nightvision cameras."

"Wade _hacked_ into the satellite channels?" Kim's eyes narrowed considerably as she stared at the woman.

"Haha…" Shego gulped nervously. "Funny thing actually…" She was startled as Kim suddenly retreated back to her room and reached for her Kimmunicator. "Wait… It's all my fault actually. I goaded him into doing it. You know, the usual blackmail and other deceitful things I do…"

Kim thought for a moment as she aimlessly fingered the bright red button on her Kimmunicator. At last, she chucked the little device back onto the nightstand and walked towards the door. Curtly, she spoke as she shut the door in Shego's face, "I'm going to take a shower."

Shego stared blankly at the shut door before giving her shoulders a shrug. She could at least tell Wade that she'd tried. Wheeling her way back to the couch, she hefted herself back onto the couch and started watching reruns of 80s game shows. She yawned as she drooped her head to the side while clutching a pillow tightly against herself as she muttered, "What the hell… Dammit Bob, you can pick up a cheap knockoff toaster from Walmart from less than $20…"

As Shego watched contestants squealing in joy from winning token prizes, she could feel her eyelids getting heavier. She was suddenly startled when a shadow glided by the edge of her vision, dressed in a light blue terrycloth bathrobe and had her hair wrapped up in a large white bath towel. "Kim?"

The red-haired woman plunked herself heavily against the other end of the couch, before curling her legs up beside her. Unwrapping the towel around her head, she started teasing out the damp red tresses from the tangles. "What are you watching?" she asked absent-mindedly.

"Nothing interesting at the moment," Shego looked at the red-haired woman in surprise. "Anything you'd like to watch?"

"I don't watch TV," Kim replied stoically.

"Old-fashion 80s family comedy it is, then…" Shego declared with a smirk.

"I'm okay with that."

As they watched grainy old sitcoms mixed with pre-recorded pre-cued audience laughter, Shego kept casting sideway glances at the silent red-head. The woman seemed to be focusing her attention on the television and cheesy, family-friendly jokes without so much as cracking a smile at the punch lines. Although she had looked like she was just playing with her damp hair, Shego felt a little uncomfortable. The ominous silence hung between them, only to be interrupted by another round of audience laughter from the television.

Shego twisted her head again to get a look at the red-head. This must have been the umpteenth time that she caught herself staring at the red-haired woman, but not once did Kim look her way. She mused to herself as Kim kept her eyes focused on the television without revealing as much a hint as to whether she realized that Shego kept staring at her.

"That's it," Kim suddenly announced as she got to her feet. "I'm going to bed."

"R-… Right…" Shego was a little taken-aback as she kept her eyes on the red-head as she glided her way back to her bedroom.

"I'll call the cable company tomorrow," Kim declared as she shut the bedroom door behind her.

"Wh-…?" Shego stared, puzzled at the red-head. _Did she just…_ Shego just shook her head and turned back towards the television. _Nah… It couldn't be…_

* * *

**Author's Notes**

A fun, light-hearted intermission in a disturbingly despairing fic. Hmm… What the heck am I up to?


End file.
